pathography

PRONUNCIATION:

(puh-THOG-ruh-fee)

MEANING:

noun: A biography that focuses on the negative.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Greek patho- (suffering, disease) + -graphy (writing). In the beginning,
pathography was a description of a disease. Then the word came to be applied
to the study of an individual or a community as relating to the influence of a
disease. Now the term mostly refers to a biography focusing on the negative.
Earliest documented use: 1848.

USAGE:

“Pizzichini’s book, though nonjudgmental, still feels like a pathography.”
Mick Sussman; The Blue Hour; The New York Times; Jul 19, 2009.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

The business of the poet and the novelist is to show the sorriness underlying the grandest things and the grandeur underlying the sorriest things. -Thomas Hardy, novelist and poet (2 Jun 1840-1928)